°®°®Ö±²„ leads national discussion on agriculture as an instrument of diplomacy
Contact: Mary Kathryn Kight
STARKVILLE, Miss.āFood and water. These basic human necessities were at the forefront of conversation led by °®°®Ö±²„ and Arizona State University in Washington, D.C. this month at the conference āThe Intersection of Agriculture and Competitive Statecraft.āĢż
Home to the Competitive Statecraft Initiative, ASU invited °®°®Ö±²„ to co-host the conference, the third in a series of discussions held on the topic. Competitive statecraft is the integration and synchronization of all instruments of national power.
āWe found a willing partner in Mississippi Stateāobviously a school that has a lot of interest and expertise in agriculture and agriculture policy,ā said Ryan Shaw, managing director of strategic initiatives and senior advisor to the president at ASU. āGeopolitics and national security strategy can get very abstract, but people have to eat and need water to drink, and that is a fundamental driver of all of our national security and competitive statecraft efforts.ā
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker kicked off the event and commended Mississippi State for working with multiple groups to discuss ways to use agriculture as an instrument of peace.
āTo the extent that the people, countries and governments in this world prefer to stay away from conflict, are involved in efforts to make sure thereās not worldwide hunger, then weāre more likely to have a peaceful world. And, in the end, mankind will be better, but weāll save tremendous sums of money that right now are being used in armed conflict,ā said Wicker.
The conference united private industries, academia and government agencies to discuss how agriculture impacts national security.
Panelist and keynote speaker Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Russell Howard, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Joint Special Operations University in Tampa, Florida, discussed the China Belt and Road Initiative.
āThe Belt and Road Initiative may be good for Chinese national security policy and foreign policy, but itās not necessarily good for the countries that itās building assets in, and itās certainly not good for U.S. national security interests in many respects,ā Howard said.
Dan Gustafson, special representative of the Director-General at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, discussed why agriculture is part of the competitive statecraft discussion. Robert D. Kaplan, bestselling author of 22 books on foreign affairs and travel, delivered the keynote address on geopolitics and the natural environment. Other topics included āThe Role of Technology to Further Agricultural Competitive Statecraftā and āWater: Threat to Stability.ā
USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer, who served as a panelist on āForging Agricultural and Food Linkages between Countries,ā noted the importance of °®°®Ö±²„ being involved in the discussion.Ģż
āI think it is great to have really strong agricultural schools that understand agriculture in these conversations with folks in state departments and defense departments and really bring home that message that Iāve said 10 times alreadyāfood is different,ā Meyers said.
It may not look like a weapon, but the ripple effect of food insecurity can cripple communities and devastate economies, he explained.Ģż
āAs the U.S. tries to engage with other countries, we find agriculture is almost always a very important issue to that country, whether itās feeding their people or trying to expand their agricultural footprint,ā said Keith Coble, °®°®Ö±²„ vice president of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine. āAt the end of the day, the ability to eat healthy, sanitary food and to be able to afford food are fundamental issues in the United States and the rest of the world.ā
°®°®Ö±²„ is taking care of what matters. Learn more at .
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